


blue sky memories

by grains_of_saturn



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Challenge fic, FFFC bingo fic, M/M, Spoilers, World of Ruin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 11:40:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14164050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grains_of_saturn/pseuds/grains_of_saturn
Summary: They remember the blue sky, even if it seems so far away.





	blue sky memories

**Author's Note:**

> For the FFFC March mini-bingo challenge, prompt square "blue sky".

 

It could be, sometimes, that Cor wouldn't see Prompto for weeks at a time. Even with the extent to which the continent now lay gated and its population contained, a mission could take them from Cleigne to Leide - or beyond. Groups of Hunters could be gone for days. (Some groups of Hunters wouldn't return.) Cor spent swathes of time, himself, away from his lodgings; there had never really been any formal sort of arrangement of them sharing the space, but it seemed that things had just turned out that way. " _If I'm not there, you might as well use it,_ " Cor had said. The same was true if he was there, also - but Cor would still notice the times that they happened to be in the same place at the same time, as if they were unusual. In a sense, the opposite was true more than anything - Lestallum was so full, now, that to have any space to yourself was almost an event in itself. A small luxury, albeit one that could never have a high priority.

Prompto could be upbeat and enthusiastic, but his presence in that room usually signified his mood having taken a turn. It was somewhere to rest, a place to retreat; Prompto knew (as well as anybody did) that Cor was not the most emotionally energetic person to be around, and so, for that time, he didn't have to keep that mask on. He could sleep there, if he wanted. He could lie there unsleeping, if that was what he wanted. Cor wasn't sure he knew very much about being demonstrative about _comfort_ , but Prompto didn't seem to mind. He'd simply smile, " _You just being around is enough. So don't go anywhere, okay?_ " (Cor wasn't sure he'd been planning to, but appreciated the sentiment all the same.)

The room itself was fairly sparsely furnished; in a previous life, it would have been one of Lestallum's finer apartments, but there was little reason to make that distinction anymore. The balcony gave a sweeping view over Lestallum itself, but also gave a fair view beyond - not that much was visible, between the bright lights on the edge of the city and the sheer darkness beyond, but it still provided something of a vantage point _just in case_. There was a table, a handful of chairs, a couch, the main bed. Cor wasn't sure that he felt he needed more than that - and if anything was available, he felt there were other people who likely needed it more than he did. Prompto's presence alleviated the guilt of being handed his own space by the Hunters - just slightly.

The walls were bare, too, which was why it came as some slight surprise to come back to the apartment, one time, to find Prompto sat on one of the chairs, facing a wall, seemingly pressing photos up to it. As Cor approached, it became obvious that this was an activity that Prompto had likely been at for quite some time.

"This is... a collage, right?"

Prompto flinched visibly on hearing Cor speak, as if he'd been too wrapped up in his activity to notice his presence. He relaxed on seeing Cor stand beside him, then turned back to the wall. "I just felt like it."

"Evidently."

To gather together photos in one place was something that Cor supposed made sense - some people would be more likely to use a photo album, perhaps, but to have photos on the wall wasn't completely disagreeable. What did strike him as curious, after having stood there for long enough to take in the subject of the photographs, was that these didn't seem to be photographs that _had_ subjects - Cor was used to seeing Prompto's collections of photographs, shots of himself, of his friends, of places and people and _things_ , but those seemed to be absent from _these_. Each affixed rectangle seemed to show a bright landscape, but little more than that. For Prompto, at least, that seemed unusual. Trying to make sense of what Prompto was throwing himself into this time, Cor folded his arms.

"I'm not sure I understand."

"Hm?" Prompto looked from the photos he was holding to Cor, and then back again. "They're all the ones I had where the sky looked best."

In a moment, the association clicked. Indeed, each one of them - whether they'd caught a field, some rocks, the top of someone's head - seemed to feature the sky, as blue and beautiful as it had ever been. To each side, there were others that showed the sky in other colors - rich, dark tones of the sun about to rise, the light orange-peach colors of the sun about to set. Shots from Galdin Quay towards Angelgard, from Cape Caem, from other places that Cor wasn't sure that he recognized.

"It gets kinda... you know. Like, at first, it just feels like... oh, yeah, it's dark, but I'm used to that. It's just like nighttime, isn't it?... Kinda isn't, though. If it was just like nighttime, then that would be one thing, but like _this_ , it's... well. You know what it's like."

Sat in front of the wall, Prompto was pinning them up at about eye-level. Cor went over to retrieve one of the other chairs from the dining table, and pulled it up near to where Prompto sat, to better be able to see the pictures. A table-lamp sat on the nearest counter; Prompto had turned the shade so that it focused its light most against the wall. Cor wasn't sure that he knew very much about art, but felt like something like this was quite artistic - although he knew that that likely wasn't Prompto's primary purpose with this. A lot of them were photos that might have been deleted, otherwise. Cor had seen it himself, the times when Prompto had looked at a photo and laughed, " _What's this even meant to be?_ " before pressing the 'delete' button. For whatever reason, however, these photos had been kept - and now, it seemed, were able to serve another purpose.

"It was never something that I gave thought to, but looking at your photos, Prompto, I wonder - what photos might I have taken, if I'd had the inclination to do so?... No point in thinking about that now, though."

"Hey, there's always time to take up a new hobby...! I've even got another camera around here somewhere - kinda makes everything look blue, though. Some sort of filter I never really figured out how to use. If you wanted to take it out and try getting some shots of your own, though, you're always welcome to do so...!"

"... I'll think about it."

"I'd be interested in seeing your photos. Even if, you know--..." Prompto smiled again, but his expression seemed slightly forced, to Cor's eyes. "The lighting isn't that great, these days."

Cor wondered when he might have had an opportunity to take photos. The immediate answer to that thought was _back in Insomnia--_ and _back when everything was--_ but to think about it, he wasn't quite sure. Prompto had a complete lack of self-consciousness when it came to taking photos, to a degree that brought him to some quite surprising shots. Cor wasn't sure he would have been able to do that; either asking people if they were okay with having their photo taken, or being known as _that guy with a camera_... for Prompto, it made sense. He wasn't sure it would have made sense for himself, back in the Citadel, with the Crownsguard around him. Having the sense to know when to be in the moment, and when to step outside of it - Cor supposed that something that could be learnt, but wasn't sure he'd have known how to, back then. Regardless, he still recognized the positivity in Prompto's words; there seemed to be little space, now, for doing much else other than staying alive, but to think like that for too long would likely bring exhaustion. The thought of 'hobbies', now, seemed frivolous - but perhaps that was alright too, once in a while. (Thinking about it, Cor wondered if he'd ever really had anything that could be considered a _hobby_. There had always been, at the time, other things to think about. _But where did that get me?_ )

"Kinda weird looking at these, though. Like... you look at them and just think, right, of course, that's totally what the sky looks like. Of course it is! It's what it always looked like!..." Prompto cast a gaze toward the balcony window. "Hasn't been like that for quite some time now, though. You look at the sky outside, it's like you can't remember it ever having been light. You look at these photos, it's like it never went away. ...Or maybe that's just me, I don't know."

"No, I understand. ...It's still such a large thing for anybody to get their head around. Who would have questioned it? The sun rises in the morning, and falls at night. That's how it's always been - that's how we've always known it. For things to be like this... it's very unnatural. On the most basic human level, we weren't made for it."

"I guess. Even with all the mythical prophecy stuff, it was always just like... the Chosen King shall _banish the darkness--!_... But those things are like fairytales, right? Not, like, a _literal_ darkness. Nobody woulda thought it'd be like that. And then, here we are...! Up to our necks in darkness round about now." They both sat in silence for a couple of moments, captured in their own thoughts while looking at the pictures. Prompto suddenly turned to look at Cor, startling slightly. "Oh--! I didn't--... ask if I could do this. Look at me, just going ahead and doin' my own thing. I'll take them down, if you want."

"What? No, it's fine. I don't mind. It... draws the eye. Makes the wall a little less bare."

"Yeah?" Prompto tilted his head to one side, considering Cor's words. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

There was another brief silence before Cor sighed lightly and placed his hand on Prompto's head, the gesture something between a head-pat and a hair-ruffle. "We'll see it again, Prompto. The sky, like that."

Prompto gave a breath of a laugh. "You always sound so sure, saying those sorts of things."

"Someone's got to. ...You don't agree?"

"N-no, it's not that. I just--... I don't know. It feels so far away, sometimes."

Looking at the photos on the wall, Cor couldn't quite bring himself to deny that thought. "... I know. Your King will return, though--"

At that, Prompto ducked out from beneath Cor's hand, fixing him with a _look_. "Your King, too."

"... Yes. You're right."

 _Maybe you could have taken pictures of Regis, back then._ It was an entirely superfluous thought, and Cor knew it. It wasn't the first time that Prompto had picked him up on that point, but there was still the part of him that stung with regret whenever the subject came up. _Noctis is the True King. The one chosen to deliver us from the darkness. Your King. Our King. Everybody's King._

_My King died, because I failed to--_

Memories of Regis seemed such as the blue sky, now. One could return - the other would never. They had lost the distinction between day and night, but the world still turned. Time still passed. Cor would look to Prompto and could understand the despair he felt from when Noctis disappeared-- _but it's not the same._

_Your King will return._

( _when darkness veils the world, the King of Light shall come--_ )

_Your King._


End file.
